Climate Justice Fund Successful Projects

Round 1 (2012-2015)

VSO will work with village committees and District planning departments in four districts of Malawi which are vulnerable to extreme weather, including erratic rainfall, droughts, floods and late starts to the rainy season. Skilled climate change advisers, volunteering for 1-2 years, will support District planners, village committees and civil society networks. They will help ensure that the poorest and most marginalised people - especially women subsistence farmers and malnourished children - will be prioritised in national and District water resource management policies and plans.

This project aims to build capacity among communities and district councils to practice Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) principles, making rural communities more resilient and the government more aware of how to balance the significant need to increase groundwater use with hydrogeologic impacts brought on by climate change, as such it address the "equity, entitlement and governance" stream of the climate justice fund.

This project will build on the findings and recommendations of earlier research into food insecurity and contribute to the empirical knowledge base and discussion in Malawi, and the broader development community, on best practice in water management to support rural livelihoods for the poor; in the context of climate change and limited financial resources.

Through piloting a portfolio of water management technologies and climate justice approaches, and documenting their impact on food availability, water usage and costs, the programme will expand the water management options available for the rural poor of Malawi. The achievement of these activities rests on community mobilisation, the piloting of different water management practices and approaches and promoting conservation agriculture.

Organisation: Tearfund

Project Title: Water and Climate Justice in Malawi - £499,694

This project seeks to support better management of water resources and helps empower communities to hold duty bearers accountable for those resources. In terms of impact, the project will lead to the improved socio economic standing of the targeted households by reducing the number of people suffering from waterborne diseases. The project intends to achieve three main outputs:

1. Increased availability of clean and safe water;

2. Increased water resources governance at district and community level; and

3. Households in targeted communities will employ strategies to adapt to climate change to improve water resource management

Organisation: Oxfam

Project Title: Zambia Climate Justice Initiative - £490,097

This project aims to help poor farmers, especially women, adapt to the effects of climate change by building their resilience to more frequent and extreme droughts and floods, securing their rights to water, sanitation and hygiene services, and improving their food production. It also aims to strengthen community participation and develop the capacity of individuals, institutions and organizations at all levels to manage, and deliver, services sustainably.

Round 2 (2014-2016)

The overall objective of the project is to reduce the vulnerability of the rural poor to climate change impacts in Malawi, by helping them to proactively and collaboratively plan for the future.

Organisation: The University Court of Glasgow Caledonian

Project Title: Climate Justice - Water for All - £607,648

To contribute towards achieving water access equity and entitlements through the development of effective socially inclusive, gender transformative and climate just governance systems based on initiatives to create and build sustainable capacity.

Organisation: Tearfund

Project Title: Enhancing Water Management in Rural Malawi - £417,132

Climate change adaptation through building water rights governance and access to sustainable safe drinking water for 6,000 households in the Balaka and Salima districts of Malawi.

Organisation: Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF)

Project Title: Water for Agricultural Production - £473,213

The project will enhance the capacity of small-scale farmers to apply rainwater harvesting and wastewater technologies for agricultural production and thereby increase resilience to climate change in four “Cells” (communities) in Rwanda.

Organisation: Water Witness

Project Title: Fair Water Futures Phase II - £439,688

Fair Water Futures Phase II makes a significant contribution to climate resilience and justice in Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia by scaling up pre-tested ‘turn-key’ interventions to: secure water rights, pollution control, flood and drought protection for vulnerable communities; drive uptake of private sector water stewardship; improve the capabilities of water resource management (WRM) institutions; and collate evidence for high impact advocacy and sharing of methodologies.

To increase availability and access to safe and potable water for 1,500 households in two Traditional Authorities of Nsanje district through rights-based, participatory and inclusive approaches to water resource management.